Daily Sabah: "Why is the Turkish Stream project postponed?"

The Turkish Daily Sabah newspaper wrote about the reasons why Russia and Turkey cannot agree on the Turkish Stream project’s implementation. It has been almost a month since Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said that Moscow and Ankara agreed on the 10% - 25% discount on natural gas for Turkey, but the contract between Russia's Gazprom and Turkey’s Botas has not been signed yet. The Republic of Turkey declares that the conditions on which Moscow insists are not acceptable for Istanbul, but, in fact, the reasons for the discontent are much deeper.

Despite claims by the Turkish authorities that Russia is putting pressure on Turkey, the reasons for the delays in the launch of the project lie in the fact that the Turkish Republic is actively involved in strategic cooperation with the United States, which in turn cannot prevent the expansion of Russian-Turkish partnership. Despite the progress made in recent years in resolving issues on foreign policy between the two countries, the Turkish leadership is endangering the further development of relations between Moscow and Istanbul.

In addition to the US intervention, there is another problem that stands in the way of the Turkish Stream project. The agreement must be ratified by the parliaments of both parties, and Turkey’s parliament at the moment is not formed. Elections to the Turkish parliament are scheduled for November 1st. This in turn gives grounds to assert that the prospects of signing an agreement on  the Turkish Stream project will be postponed for at least another three months.

The first phase of the project has to be completed by 2016, but delays from the Turkish side postpone the execution of this phase for an indefinite time. In case of the agreement not being signed, both sides will suffer significant financial losses, and Turkey cooperating with the United States is also in danger of losing an important strategic partner in the face of Russia.

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The Washington Times wrote that even if an agreement on the Iranian nuclear program were to be signed, the threat of military intervention will continue. Amid growing uncertainty as to whether the agreement on Iran's nuclear program will pass a vote in the US Congress or not, some radical congressmen have expressed their opinion that even if the deal is concluded, the question of military intervention on the territory of the Islamic Republic of Iran is still relevant. The US Defence Secretary announced that the government will take all measures to prevent the spread of the nuclear threat from Iran, as well as to provide "active help in protection of our friends," referring to Israel.

Despite all the efforts made by President Barack Obama to sign an agreement on the Iranian nuclear program, there is a huge number of opponents of the deal in Congress and not only among the Republicans but also among Democrats, whom the current president of the United States represents.

Iran, despite all the threats from a number of US and Israeli politicians, continues to work with new partners in the Middle East and in Europe, thus emphasizing the failure of the US threats against the background of the global economic situation.